nostalgia necessities: THE SANDLOT (1993)

There is one thing to be said for ABC Family. No, I’m not talking about Secret Life of the American Teenager, though it DOES provide plentiful laughs for its viewers. It is instead its occasional stumbling upon a great early 90s nostalgic shout-out to my childhood. Today’s edition? 1993’s The Sandlot. Idolized by anyone born in the 1980s (and quite possibly their parents as well), who could forget the ragtag team of bad news bears that battled “the beast,” puked from too much chew at the Fourth of July carnival, and wet their pants every time anyone talked about The Great Bambi… ahem… I mean, The Great Bambino. While this generation’s inclination is to break out into song and dance on cafeteria tables and listen to the warbling of a self-proclaimed pop star with an identity crisis, I recall the days when it was much more

appealing to build elaborate erector sets to retrieve slobbered-upon baseballs from the clutches of a legendary gargantuan pooch. Though most of the youngsters in the film went on to hardly anything but playing soccer with a goat, you’d be pleased to know that Tom “Smalls” Guiry managed to at least make his way onto Mystic River, which just so happened to be playing simultaneously over on AMC. And then there was the out-of-reach vixen and lifeguard pin-up Wendy Peffercorn, which was, much to my surprise, played by a young Marley Shelton. The effects of The Sandlot have certainly transferred seamlessly into my adult life, as “You’re killing me Smalls!” is a response to a less-than-stellar situation that every twentysomething I encounter will surely relate to.

Memorable Scene: The potty-mouthed exchange of pleasantries that ensued when the rival team showed up. Buffalo-butt breath, indeed.